110 MYTILID^E. 



being at the time in spawn and therefore out of season. 

 A strange notion once prevailed that the poor little pea- 

 crab was the author of all this mischief; and it was con- 

 sequently stigmatized as " malignant." 



Nor is it only as an article of food that these shell-fish 

 are of use to man. In Lister's time live mussels were 

 gathered and spread over the fields in Lancashire for 

 manure. Fabricius mentions that the fish eaten raw is 

 an excellent remedy for sore eyes, and that the shell 

 serves as a razor to shave with. I should not like to 

 try the latter experiment on a frosty morning, or when 

 late for breakfast. Mohr says that mussels are not 

 eaten in Iceland, but that lime is made from their cal- 

 cined shells, and is much more binding and becomes 

 harder than mortar made from limestone. They are 

 also used extensively for bait in our long-line fisheries ; 

 and Asbjornsen has given, in his ' Christianiafjordens 

 Litoralfauna/ some interesting particulars of the mus- 

 sel-fishings on that part of the Norwegian coast, and 

 especially with regard to an epidemic that in the summer 

 of 1852 destroyed millions of them and caused great 

 distress to the poor fishermen. In Drummond's ' Letters 

 to a Young Naturalist 7 it is stated that mussels are 

 used at Bideford to fix by means of their byssus the 

 stones of a bridge, which is difficult to keep in repair 

 owing to the rapidity of the tide. The interstices of the 

 bridge are filled with them, and it is said that only their 

 strong threads support the fabric and prevent its being 

 carried away. It is one of the instances of contrivance 

 enumerated by Paley in illustration of his chapter on 

 compensation, and to show that the works of the Deity 

 are known by expedients. He says, " A muscle, which 

 might seem, by its helplessness, to lie at the mercy of 

 every wave that went over it, has the singular power of 



